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Egil Bakka
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9. Dancing and Politics in Croatia: The Salonsko Kolo as a Patriotic Response to the Waltz1

Ivana Katarinčić et Iva Niemčić

Texte intégral

  • 1 A similar version of this chapter was first published in 2016/2017, as Iva Niemčić and Ivana Katari (...)
  • 2 All translations from Croatian sources throughout this chapter were produced by Nina Vrdoljak.

1During the period of Croatian national revival, the Illyrian movement (1830–1948), dance halls became one of the key places where Illyrians gathered, and dance became one of the ways they promoted their ideas. This chapter will discuss these aspects, as well as how dances themselves had a role in the political life of Zagreb. We trace the arrival of the Waltz in the Croatian ballrooms and compare it with the appearance of the Salonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1). Salonsko Kolo was an indigenous urban dance composed of figures and formations, which sprang up as a patriotic reply to the foreign Waltz. In order to express resistance to foreign influences, dance entertainments proclaimed and promoted national colours, national fashion, and patriotic verses, and it was in this environment that the Croatian or Slavonic Kolo-dance was born. We will trace its arrival, its spread, and its coexistence with other dances at balls, and we will also examine the survival of the Waltz and Salonsko Kolo until the beginning of the twentieth century.2

2The Salonsko Kolo slowly fell into obscurity in urban ballrooms in Croatia. However, because its original purpose was to express national identity, it was taught and danced among Croatian expatriates. Unlike the Kolo, the Waltz successfully resisted the ravages of time and political upheavals, penetrated all levels of society, and is still danced today. We will first discuss dance venues, in order to demonstrate how the frequency with which dance socials were organised was connected with the discovery of appropriate dance venues. We will then examine dance events in the social context of nineteenth-century Zagreb, presenting their role and influence on Zagreb social life over a period of major political turmoil.

Fig. 9.1 Video: Goran Knežević reconstructed the performance of Slavonsko Kolo. Veterani KUD-a Croatia — “hrvatsko salonsko kolo”’, 7: 50, posted online by fudoooo1, Youtube, 7 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=OA9D5Zt94HQ; and ‘Goran Knežević-Hrvatsko salonsko kolo, FA Ententin, 1. FFK — Zagreb, 2003’, 7: 48, posted online by Goran Knežević, Youtube, 21 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=J8LOIffuy_0

Dance Venues in Zagreb

  • 3 Narodne novine, and its literary supplement Danica horvatsko, slavonska, dalmatinska, in particular (...)
  • 4 Cf. Zvonimir Milčec, Galantni Zagreb (Zagreb: Mladost, 1989), p. 16; Nada Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik (...)
  • 5 Baltazar Adam Krčelić, Annue ili historija, pp. 129–30.
  • 6 Ibid.
  • 7 Dragutin Hirc, ‘Stari Zagreb’, Zbornik III. Programa Radio-Zagreba, 17 (1987), 97–155.

3In the newspapers describing Zagreb life and customs, dances from the end of the eighteenth century were noted only in passing or were briefly mentioned. The daily newspapers of the nineteenth century, however, are a rich source of information about dance.3 With the rise of the noble and aristocratic families during the mid-eighteenth century, dances in Zagreb largely took place in the noble Upper Town aristocratic mansions, in the homes of the Zagreb nobility.4 Since dance entertainments were a novelty in the social and entertainment life of Zagreb at that time, they were met by opposition, criticism and condemnation. Baltazar Adam Krčelić characterised these first dances as ‘a temple of lust’ and ‘nest of promiscuity’.5 Describing the ‘living pictures’ that were an integral part of eighteenth-century dance events, he criticised ‘the debauchery and lasciviousness with which a man frolicked with the women, so that his legs were between the women’s legs, with one leg between the legs of one woman, and the other between the legs of another’.6 However, dance entertainment quickly became fashionable, and constituted the main activity in the social lives of the ruling Zagreb classes. Wanting to be ‘distinguished, everyone yearned [to be] at a dance ball or in the theatre’:7

  • 8 At the time, Croatia was part of the Habsburg Empire and had a divided administration. The Banate o (...)
  • 9 Dubravka Franković, ‘O muzičkom životu Hrvatske tragom oglasnika ilirske štampe’, Iz starog i novog (...)

At the end of the eighteenth century and during the nineteenth, the Croatian lands were divided territorially8 and under the great political and thus inevitably the social influence of Buda, Vienna, and Prague. On the other hand, young intellectuals, for their part, educated at European universities, spread the influence of the Slavic lands and their common political ideas, particularly the attainment of economic autonomy (by the abolition of the feudal order) and political autonomy (by the restoration of authority to the national institutions and support for the use of the native Croatian language) from the Habsburg Monarchy. The age of the Croatian national revival, the Illyrian movement (1830–1848), was a period of the awakening of national consciousness rejection of the foreign and promoting of the native language, customs, music, song and thus also — dance. During those years in Zagreb, the Illyrians tried to ensure that the ‘national spirit’ took hold in the everyday festive life of Zagreb. Even previously, the popular dance evenings and balls had been slightly changing their musical and dance content. Along with the ‘European’ social dances, ‘national’ dances were being included more frequently.9

4Dance events and dance entertainments, in the social context of the major political turmoil of Zagreb in the nineteenth-century, had a significant influence on Zagreb’s social life. During the period of Croatian national revival (1830–1848), dance halls became important places for the Illyrians to gather, and one of the forums in which they could promote their ideas. One of the main goals of the movement was the struggle to use the Croatian language in public and private life, raising national awareness and to lift the Croatian spirit. Dances became a platform for expressing patriotism and promoting national ideas. In order to express resistance to the imposition of foreign influences, dance entertainments proclaimed and promoted national colours, national fashion and patriotic verses, and it was in this atmosphere that the Croatian or Slavonic Kolo-dance was born. It was those Illyrians who, utilising the Kolo and insisting upon it as an articulation of the indigenous and the national, introduced this circle dance into the Zagreb mansions and salons.

Fig. 9.2 Dragutin Weingärtner, Meeting of the Croatian Parliament, 1848, 1885. Session of the Croatian Parliament of 4 July 1848, at which the parliamentary deputies sought means for the defence of their homeland and the arming of the Croatians for a war of independence. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/​wiki/​File:Dragutin_Weing%C3%A4rtner,_Hrvatski_sabor_1848._god.jpg

  • 10 People originally from Zagreb are called Purgeri.
  • 11 Igor Karaman and Ivan Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1994), p. 146.
  • 12 Dragutin Hirc, ‘Stari Zagreb’, 138.
  • 13 Mijo Krešić, Autobiografija (Zagreb: Tisak Dioničke tiskare, 1898), p. 69.
  • 14 Unfortunately, the source does not provide the first name of this individual.
  • 15 All the streets mentioned in this chapter are situated in the centre of Zagreb, Croatia’s capital. (...)
  • 16 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 146. According to the official 1819 census, Zagreb had j (...)

5Until the Illyrian movement, when social classes were brought closer together in opposition to foreign influences, the dance entertainments were largely detached — that is, held separately for the citizenry and for the nobility. The citizenry organised their own ‘purger dances’10 that were held in taverns and cafés. From records of the payment of community tariffs for those events, we learn that several ‘balls’ with hundreds of visitors were held at various taverns in a single Carnival season around the year 1780. These events were held in taverns on the central Lower Town square.11 There were several inns on the southern side of Zagreb’s Harmica, where ‘they ate and drank day and night, danced, sang, to the music of a bass and tweedle gusle, and made a lot of noise’.12 When organising Carnival dances, ‘the aristocracy in Zagreb organised its entertainment exclusively for themselves at smallish venues, while the citizenry did so at the newly-built shooting range, in a .small hall without sufficient comfort’.13 A Zagreb café proprietor, Pley,14 stood out as an organiser of Carnival celebrations, arranging dances for the nobility and for the citizenry. In 1786, he hired the great hall of the Vojković mansion (at 9 Matoš Street)15 for ‘refined dances’, and the City Council hall for entertainments for the citizenry. During that season, Pley held thirty events, which were attended by some 2,500 guests.16

  • 17 Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter.
  • 18 The feast day that commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ’s disciples, fifty days a (...)
  • 19 Ivan Ivančan, Narodni plesni običaji u Hrvata (Zagreb: Hrvatska matica iseljenika, Institut za etno (...)
  • 20 There were also exceptions, and we know that some entertainment was organised in Zagreb in connecti (...)
  • 21 Vanda Ladović, ‘Oslikani ciljevi građanskog streljačkog društva’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol (...)
  • 22 Slavko Batušić, ‘Osnova za prvo kazalište u Zagrebu’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 5, ed by. (...)

6The majority of dances were organised at Carnival time, when more freedom was permitted than was customary. Croatian lands historically belonged to the Catholic Church, and the religious calendar typically dictated the time of social gatherings that included dancing. It was customary in the villages to dance at various times of the year (apart from during Lent and Advent, when dancing took place only exceptionally and not in public), since beliefs were bound up with the performance of dances. For example, the villagers danced to influence the outcome of the harvest in order to repel evil spirits from the villages, the houses, people, the domestic animals and the like; or they danced to mark particular dates (name days, for example). Dances were regularly performed on Christmas Eve, in the season from Palm Sunday17 to Whitsuntide,18 and on other occasions, which would have been fairly uncommon in Zagreb.19 The social life of the citizens of Zagreb at the end of the eighteenth century — apart from during special and/or Carnival periods20 — took place largely within a domestic environment, amongst the circle of family and friends. The months during which the Carnival took place were fairly cold, so dancing required an indoor venue. In other words, no appropriate public venues existed at which the people of Zagreb could meet, chat and enjoy themselves in their free time.21 At the end of the eighteenth century, steps began to be taken to solve this problem of space, since this problem afflicted not only the citizens of Zagreb, but also the theatre companies operating there between 1780–1860.22

  • 23 In Opatička Street (today’s City of Zagreb Museum).
  • 24 Pavao Cindrić, ‘Trnovit put do samostalnosti (do 1860)’, in Enciklopedija Hrvatskoga narodnoga kaza (...)
  • 25 Nada Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, (...)
  • 26 Antun Amadé de Varkonyi (1757–1835), Royal Chamberlain and Great County Prefect of Zagreb.
  • 27 At Demetrova Street.
  • 28 Pavao Cindrić, ‘Trnovit put do samostalnosti (do 1860)’, p. 35.
  • 29 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 180.

7When the Clarissa Convent23 passed into city administration after the disbanding of the Order of St Clare (1782), the first public theatre auditorium for holding dances and other performances in Zagreb was established.24 When Count Ante Pejačević had a large mansion built in 1796, he included a dance hall along with a stage and auditorium.25 After Count Pejačević’s death, Count Antun Amadé de Varkonyi26 became the new owner of the theatre in 1807.27 Count Amadé gave the theatre its name, while Maksimilijan Vrhovac, then Bishop of Zagreb (1787–1827), put up the necessary money.28 Dance entertainments and theatre productions performed by the travelling German companies were held in that hall until the beginning of the 1830s.29 However, the Amadé Theatre became unsuitable for the more ambitious theatre undertakings, and too small for large dances.

  • 30 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, p. 139.
  • 31 Ladović, ‘Oslikani ciljevi građanskog streljačkog društva’, pp. 127–28.

8Using money he had won in the lottery, the Zagreb merchant Kristofor Stanković made a cash gift to Zagreb to erect the first permanent theatre building. With the building of the theatre on St Mark’s Square, Zagreb received its first public dance hall, while a few years later in 1837, when the shooting gallery at Tuškanac was built, the Zagreb Marksmen Society held dances there that brought together the ‘patriotic’ public.30 The Society arranged dances so that the shooting range, and the social hall situated next to it, soon became the social hub of Zagreb in that period, and it was to remain so for decades.31

9As the middle classes became economically and politically stronger, especially with the appearance of Illyrians on Zagreb’s social scene, the social life of the city became significantly more exciting. The growing middle class took over the organisation of social events, seeking newer and larger public venues where entertainments and dances could be held.

  • 32 The Mansion had been built a few years previously in 1838 at 18 Opatička Street (now the Institute (...)
  • 33 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 182.

10In 1846, the Illyrians bought a building called the Mansion,32 and converted it into the National Hall. Meetings were held and dances arranged in the main hall. Various revivalist and cultural activities, as well as other social events, were held at the National Hall, so that it soon became the focal point of the cultural, entertainment and political life of Zagreb.33

11The Hungarian Society then bought the Amadé Theatre (mentioned above) in 1845, as a counter-balance to the Illyrian National Hall. It was renamed the Casino, and dance evenings were held there regularly. The Casino and the shooting range became rivals of sorts in organising larger and more attractive dance evenings, particularly during the time of the Croatian national revival.

12The Zagreb public had an awareness of Illyrian ideology, and the efforts of the Illyrians to promote the nation — in their language, mode of attire and national colours. However, at that time, Zagreb society was still inclined towards the traditional, foreign, largely Viennese fashion and the Viennese school, even in certain minor aspects of manners that were not in keeping with the national spirit, but were commonplace and thus widely accepted. Nonetheless, resistance and even hostility to what was Hungarian and Austrian was clearly manifested in Zagreb. The shooting range and the Casino, as representatives of national convictions on the one hand, and a pro-Hungarian stance on the other, were at the forefront in expressing mutual hostility and competitiveness in preparing and organising dances.

The Croatian National Revival and Dance Balls in the Nineteenth Century

13The appearance of social dance in Europe was linked to the growth of the larger European cities, and conditioned by the development of trade and crafts. Social and/or city dances made their way to Zagreb from these European cities, leaving their first known traces during the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century, these dances further changed in form and significance. Popular social dances, like the Minuet and the Cotillion, because of their numerous complex forms and steps, gave way to simpler and merrier dances in the nineteenth century. The Waltz, the Polka, the Galop, the Quadrille and the Mazurka were danced at social balls. In the nineteenth century, and during the Illyrian movement, couple dances that originated from folk dances (indigenous peasant dances) intertwined with foreign couple dances that arrived in Zagreb dance halls.

  • 34 The Zagreb City Museum is now home to more than two hundred different examples of the dance program (...)

14The Waltz was the most dominant and most interesting nineteenth-century dance. It was performed as a social, national and stage dance and it can be found in all the dance programmes preserved at Zagreb City Museum.34

Fig. 9.3 Dance programs preserved at the Museum of the City of Zagreb, with permission from the Zagreb City Museum.

  • 35 On the pervasive popularity of the Waltz, as well as the Waltz crossing the boundaries of acceptabl (...)
  • 36 Antonija Kassowitz-Cvijić, ‘Nekoć na svečanom balu’, Jutarnji list (20 February 1927), pp. 19–22.
  • 37 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, p. 140.

15Although it was the most popular dance, the Waltz was constantly subject to criticism since, apart from the overly bold (for the time) physical closeness of the dance partners, its non-Slavic origins were held against it.35Particularly during the Illyrian period, the Viennese Waltz carried significant German associations, and therefore there was a certain degree of hostility directed towards it.36 As a result of the ‘fervent struggle against the seductive Viennese Waltz, which our ladies defended with persistent pleas and melancholic sighs’, a resourceful Count Jurica Oršić ordered Croatian melodies to be performed in 3/4 time, and thus ‘patriotism was satisfied, and the Waltz was still played’.37

  • 38 ‘Prošaste poklade kod nas u Zagrebu’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 11 (14 March 1840), 43–44.
  • 39 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Letošnje poklade u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (11 March 1843), 39–40.
  • 40 Ibid., 40.
  • 41 Ibid., 40.

16An article published in 1840 in the newspaper Danica, by an unknown author, describes the Carnival in Zagreb. He notes that there are ‘all-new Waltzes and Kalops, this year composed in unusually large numbers by native composers, full of folk Illyrian tunes, and accepted with excitement by our folk’.38 In an article entitled ‘Letošnje poklade u Zagrebu’ [‘This Year’s Carnival in Zagreb’], Ljudevit Vukotinović wrote that there were entertainments at the Casino and certain private houses, although he himself did not attend these, since he did not want to visit places ‘where patriotism disappears’.39 At the same time, he gave prominence to the role of the Zagreb Marksmen Society, whose balls were ‘the most important; they had a clear significance to everyone: that this ball was being held in Zagreb, in a land where the Slavs live’.40 He emphasised that the folk circle dance Narodno Kolo, which slowly became a part of the Zagreb dance repertoire, ‘was performed every time and, apart from that, the hall was decked out in national colours, the notices were in the national language everywhere, various national melodies were played, and the ladies and girls, the men and the youths, competed in speaking in the national language only’.41

  • 42 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, Narodna umjetnost, 25 (1988), (...)
  • 43 Elsie Ivancich Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo” as Cultural Identity in a Chilean Yugoslav Community (1917– (...)
  • 44 Dubravka Franković, ‘Uloga ilirske štampe u muzičkom životu Hrvatske od 1835. do 1849., II dio: od  (...)
  • 45 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 143.
  • 46 Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo”’, 110.
  • 47 ‘Prošaste poklade kod nas u Zagrebu’, 43–44.

17Since the structure of the circle dance — which connected the dancers and thus incorporated individuals into a community — perfectly suited the patriotic ideology of the Illyrians concerning the unity of Slavic peoples, Narodno Kolo became the dance symbol of the unity of South-Slav peoples.42 Narodno Kolo, which later became known as Salonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1), emphasised the cultural identity of the Croatians in opposition to the other popular social dances of the nineteenth century, such as the Waltz and the Polka.43 Thus, certain dance figures performed by peasants during village festivities — along with some of the steps from the folk circle dance — slowly entered Zagreb ballrooms as a part of the dance repertoire at the Illyrian masked balls.44 Still, it is highly unlikely that middle-class society would have accepted Narodno Kolo in its original choreographic and musical form. It is no wonder, therefore, that the choreographed round dance appeared.45 In this way, Kolo cannot be called a folk dance per se, but a salon dance with figures partly based on Slavonian folk dance.46 Although Kolo was accepted with joy and open arms, few could dance it. Narodno Kolo was performed at a ball in Zagreb in 1840 by an unknown society ‘wearing folk costumes who were led into the ballroom by the pipers’.47

18This marks the beginning of the merging of couple dances based on folk dances with foreign couple dances, and their coexistence up until the present day at rural parties and urban balls.

  • 48 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Salon u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 6 (5 February 1842), 23.
  • 49 In ‘O folklorizmu’, Maja Bošković-Stulli observes that Vukotinović noticed the relevant characteris (...)
  • 50 Vukotinović, ‘Salon u Zagrebu’, 23.

19A short article by Vukotinović, issued in Danica during Carnival on 27 January 1842, mentions a ball entitled ‘folk evening ball’, held in Zagreb.48 In this article, Vukotinović criticises the title ‘folk evening ball’, and wonders what the term ‘folk’ means in this context.49 He suggests that folk refers to a set of rules among people, including particular customs, folk costumes and language. However, at this ‘European ball, the costumes are European, and the customs are too, which we are all familiar with under the term etiquette’.50 Still, Kolo attracted the most attention, since, according to Vukotinović, it was being introduced into the salon for the first time.

  • 51 Vatroslav Lisinki (1819–1854) was the first Croatian professional musician, who also laid the groun (...)
  • 52 Franjo Kuhač, Vatroslav Lisinski i njegovo doba: Prilog za poviest hrvatskoga preporoda (Zagreb: Ma (...)
  • 53 Višnja Hrbud-Popović, ‘Kolo hervatsko: Das kroatische Kolo kao društveni ples prema opisu iz 1848’, (...)
  • 54 Franjo Kuhač, ‘Ples i plesovna glazba’, Prosvjeta, List za zabavu znanost i umjetnost, 1 (1893), 5– (...)
  • 55 Compare Višnja Hrbud-Popović, ‘Kolo hervatsko’, 199–209.

20We will briefly outline the different terms used across time for the Kolo. It can give some perspective about its moving through different classes. There is not much information given about the choreographer .of the Kolo — a young army officer named Marko Bogunović. He called it Slavonsko Kolo. However, since young Illyrians wanted the Croatian circle dance, he also choreographed Hrvatsko Kolo. The music for both Slavonsko and Hrvatsko Kolo was composed by Vatroslav Lisinski.51Dvoransko Kolo became a general term for Narodno, Hrvatsko and Slavonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1). Later, Salonsko Kolo was also often used, or just Kolo, which remained on the dance repertoire in Croatian cities until the Second World War.52 According to Višnja Hrbud-Popović, by using the term Dvoransko Kolo, Franjo Kuhač ‘precisely indicated its specific character in accordance with the established rules for that kind of dance’ and emphasised the difference between the performance of Narodno Kolo and its interpretation for balls in middle-class and aristocratic circles.53 Kuhač describes Narodno Kolo as ‘finer than folk, but still such that folk people could recognise characteristics in that elegant circle dance, which they could perform in their simple circle dance’.54 If we look at the very structure of Kolo, it can be seen that it is a couple dance in which different dance figures are performed. The number of dance figures and couples differ depending on the source; generally, there are seven dance figures for Slavonsko Kolo, and six for Hrvatsko Kolo.55

21In addition to Narodno Kolo, there was also the Cotillion, the Quadrille and the Polka, which were danced once or twice at every ball. However, at Carnival in 1843, the Waltz was the most popular. As a great patriot, Vukotinović was surprised and found the answer in the simplicity of the Waltz:

  • 56 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Letošnje poklade u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (11 March 1843), 36.

… it does not cause many worries and requires just a little bit of attention. When a man holds his partner tight and starts turning recklessly, just as they turn once, they can turn ten times or a hundred times…56

22This is probably the first description of the Waltz in Croatia.

  • 57 Stjepan Pejaković (1818–1904) was a well-known Croatian publicist and politician.
  • 58 Emil Laszowski and Velimir Deželić, ‘Dnevnik Dragutina Rakovca’, Narodna starina, 3 (1922), 302–03.

23The memoirs of Dragutin Rakovac, a Croatian writer, translator and journalist, record an interesting letter sent to Dragutin from his friend Stjepan Pejaković,57 who mentions a Slavic ball in Vienna at Carnival on 4 February 1844. Pejaković reports that, since he had been unable to bring Illyrian musicians with him, it was questionable how the Kolo could be performed. However, an otherwise unknown individual named Mr. Brlić saved the day; he had danced the Kolo in Zagreb and knew the necessary figures. He taught eight Illyrian boys and eight Slavic girls how to dance the Kolo, and selected accompanying music from folk songs for the orchestra to play. The Kolo was performed by eight couples twice that evening, though it was announced only once on the repertoire, next to the all-pervasive Polka and Waltz. There were more than four hundred guests at the ball, and, when the Kolo was played, only eight newly-taught couples danced, whereas the other dances were performed by roughly one hundred couples.58

  • 59 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Folklorni ples u Hrvata od” izvora” do pozornice’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Un (...)
  • 60 Varaždin is a city not far from Zagreb.
  • 61 Narodne novine [n.a.], 71 (1847).

24Dance balls were a crucial element of any party. In order for them to develop and function effectively, professional dance teachers and dance schools became necessary. A dance teacher, Alojzije Deperis, arrived from Trieste with the intention of teaching ‘both indigenous and foreign dances’.59 Albert Dragoner, a ‘Horvat Varaždinec’60 [a Croatian from Varaždin], became known as a result of his advertisement, in which he emphasised his sound knowledge of all European and national dances.61

  • 62 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 144–45.

25Pietro Coronelli, an Italian ballet master, was the first permanent dance teacher to come to Zagreb. He arrived in 1859, at the invitation of Baron Ambroz Vranyczany, to undertake the teaching of his daughter, Klotilda. Coronelli soon expanded his activities, and, as well as his work in the theatre, he gave lessons to the public both in group courses and privately. Coronelli’s advertisement for the teaching of dance came out in Pozor in 1860. He played an active part in the teaching and affirmation of social dances right up until his death in 1902, when his daughter Elvira continued to teach dance with the help of her sister Bianca.62

  • 63 The dissemination and popularity of the Kolo-dance was also boosted by the booklet in pocket-book f (...)

26It can reasonably be assumed that the dance teachers who arrived in Zagreb from European cities were the main, decisive factor in the dissemination of the European dances, which became fully adopted in Zagreb.63

  • 64 ‘Svečano otvorenje dvorane zagrebačke u narodnom domu’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 7 (13 February 1847) (...)
  • 65 Ibid.
  • 66 Ibid.
  • 67 Bogdan Kuretić, ‘Dopis o slavjanskome balu u Beču’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (27 February 1847), 36.

27In February 1847, a gala ball was held to celebrate the opening of the Zagreb ballroom at Narodni dom, where the dancing of the Kolo ‘was followed by the usual European dances’.64 An anonymous author writing in Danica argues that, to compensate for the fact that the balls cannot be limited to native dances, it would be favourable to have ‘native folk music for the European dances’.65 While there are many articles written in Danica about music for Waltzes and Polkas by native composers, giving a patriotic flavour to popular European dances, we have concluded it was more likely that at the balls those dances were performed with the original music by foreign composers. At the end of the author’s discussion of dance, the article makes a remark that suggests the merging of urban and rural dances took people by surprise: ‘who could imagine several years ago, that our Kolo would be introduced to elegant balls!’66 The next article was written by Bogdan Kuretić, and it concerned the Slavic ball held in Vienna, also in February 1847, which hosted Czechs, Croatians, French, Germans, Russians, and very few Poles. Here, Kuretić suggested that Kolo and the accompanying music should adapt more to the balls by becoming more ‘European’ and less distinctively Slavic, so that, like the Polka, they could grow in popularity across Europe.67

  • 68 ‘Pravnički bal’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 8 (19 February 1848), 32.
  • 69 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, 143.
  • 70 ‘Pravnički bal’, 32.

28The Zagreb City Museum’s collection of dance programmes contains a fan from the lawyers’ ball, which took place on 12 February 1848. The fan has eight wings and each wing has one dance written on each side. As an anonymous author describes in an article in Danica in 1848, ‘The beautiful fans (fächer) for ladies were elegantly embroidered with names of dances on each side, containing the list of dances before and after midnight’.68 Thus, on the aforementioned fan from the Zagreb City Museum’s collection, we can observe the dance repertoire of the lawyers’ ball: Horvatsko Kolo, the Polka, the Quadrille, Walzer, Kolo Slavonsko, the Polka, the Mazurka.69 The anonymous author in Danica reports that the prominent place in the repertoire was reserved for ‘folk dances’, and there were four of them — ‘Kolo Horvatsko, Kolo Slavonsko, the Polka and the Mazurka’ — which collectively ‘express in the clearest way the importance of folk for those who call those dances the native ones’.70

29In turn, in Zagreb, the Polka, the Waltz and the Quadrille are contrasted with three folk dances performed — Kolo Horvatsko, Kolo Slavonsko and the Mazurka, all connected by a common Slavic element.

  • 71 Ibid.

Seen as one, these three dances are like a piece of art by a famous artist. Slavonsko Kolo brings the allegro, Horvatsko Kolo brings the adagio, and the Mazurka brings a brilliant, concluding vivace.71

  • 72 ‘Gradjanski bal’, [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 11 (11 March 1848), 48.
  • 73 Ibid.

30As reported in another article in Danica, a ball took place at the beginning of March 1848, and more than 1,200 guests attended.72 Apart from the citizens of Zagreb, there were also guests from Varaždin, Križevci, Jastrebarsko, Koprivnica, and Petrinja. The ball was very joyful, and lasted till the morning light. Clergy, soldiers, and nobility all enjoyed it equally. The article reports that ‘the ball started as usual, with Kolo Horvatsko which alternated several times with Kolo Slavonsko’.73 While other dances are not mentioned in the article by their name, it is clear from this reference that Horvatsko and Slavonsko Kolo were performed alternately several times at the most visited ball that year. Kolo Horvatsko and Kolo Slavonsko became fixtures at many balls in Zagreb and across Croatia, but also, for example, in Vienna at Slavic balls, where such dances, as a social couple dance, had equal status to that of the Waltz, Polka and Mazurka.

31The frequency of dance socials was primarily linked to long-term efforts to seek out appropriate dance venues. As we have outlined in this chapter, while dancing took place initially in taverns, inns, private houses and the mansions of the Zagreb aristocracy, the efforts to build a theatre and other premises for holding dances eventually culminated in the foundation of various institutions, which undertook the organisation and arrangement of dances at their premises and solved the problem of where to dance.

32An essential change that took place during the time of the National Revival was the increasingly close connection between all the Zagreb classes at dances. Groups of people from diverse social and economic backgrounds were linked in the struggle for attainment of national awareness. This period also marks the beginning of the merging of couple dances based on folk dances with foreign couple dances, and their coexistence, till the present day, at rural parties and urban balls.

Epilogue: Further Reverberations and Comparisons

  • 74 ‘I didn’t see all the dances, I noted down music only for some of them, but the ones I saw, I descr (...)

33Kuhač provides some interesting, contemporary contemplations on dance at the end of the nineteenth century, though his initial intention was not to conduct research into dance, but rather, to write about music.74 He discusses the breakthrough of urban couple dances into the tradition, connecting this breakthrough with the beginning of the emancipation of women.

  • 75 Kuhač, ‘Ples i plesovna glazba’, 108.

In modern Waltzes and Polkas, each part has two motifs — not just two different melodious motifs but also two different rhythmical motifs. One is for the male dancer, the other is for the female dancer. This new structure perfectly matches the present spirit of the times in which every woman seeks emancipation and wants to think with her own brain, speak her own mind and act independently. In the past, women willingly agreed with their husbands, and gladly confirmed what their husbands said […] It is different with our Kolo, which doesn’t represent the conversation between two persons, but the conversation of the whole society. […] If someone in that society says something clever, it is repeated by men and women, the young and the old. A composer has to see all that and bear it in his mind.75

  • 76 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 147.
  • 77 Aleksandra Muraj, ‘Poklade u Zagrebu (1900–1918.)’, Narodna umjetnost, 41.2 (2004), 205–34 (p. 212)

34In about 1910, the Waltz was still the most prevalent dance at balls. At an average European ball, every fifth dance would be reserved for Polka, Quadrille or Mazurka, and the rest were Waltzes.76 In her paper on masked balls in Zagreb at the beginning of the twentieth century, Aleksandra Muraj points out that simpler couple dances like the Waltz, the Polka and the Mazurka dominated, but the Croatian circle dances were performed as well.77

  • 78 The Ortolani unpublished typewrittcn manuscript is located at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklo (...)
  • 79 Sremac, ‘Folklorni ples u Hrvata od “izvora” do pozornice’, p. 49.

35It is worth returning briefly to Horvatsko and Slavonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1). After publishing a detailed choreographic description of the ballroom Slavonsko Kolo in Vienac in 1872, which undoubtedly encouraged the spreading and preservation of Kolo, Kuhač stopped dealing with it altogether. The terms Horvatsko Kolo and Slavonsko Kolo do not appear in any subsequent articles. At the end of the nineteenth century, we do, however, encounter the term Hrvatsko Salonsko Kolo, which survived until World War Two. It was described by Pietro Ortolani (1936)78 after watching the performance in Dubrovnik on St. Vlaho’s Day. In his description, we learn that Kolo was rarely performed, and gradually started sinking into oblivion. According to all the available information, Stjepan Sremac concludes that, after the Illyrian movement, Horvatsko Kolo was completely forgotten, whereas Slavonsko Kolo changed its name into Hrvatsko Salonsko Kolo and gradually lost its national symbolism. It nonetheless continued to live at balls until World War Two, during which it too disappeared.79 Unlike Kolo, the ever-popular and charming Waltz successfully resisted the ravages of time and all political upheavals, penetrating all social layers, and is still danced today.

  • 80 See Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo”’, 122.

36The two Kolos from urban ballrooms were unable survive in their newly choreographed form, and slowly fell into obscurity in Croatia. They did not even manage to spread beyond the city limits and penetrate the rural tradition. However, because of their original purpose — to express national identity — they were successfully taught and danced in Chile among Croatian expatriates there. For example, in 1917, in Antofagasta, the Gjuro Roić taught his fellow Croatians how to dance during a period in which it was important to express Croatian/Slavic identity, in contrast to Austrian identity. The same was true in 1941, during the Nazi invasion. Apart from 1917 and 1941, Salonsko Kolo was not danced in Chile until the 1950s, when Roić taught the second and third generation of the Croatian expatriates. It became particularly prominent during periods in which there was political turmoil in their ancestors’ homeland.80

  • 81 Andriy Nahachewsky, ‘Once Again: On the Concept of “Second Existence” Folk Dance’, in Dans Müsik Kü (...)
  • 82 From personal communication with Elsie Ivancich Dunin.
  • 83 The Homeland War or the Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995.
  • 84 In 1999 in Zagreb, according to Coronelli’s interpretation and Kuhač’s music, “Dr. Ivan Ivančan”, Z (...)

37Andriy Nahachewsky, writing about the concept of the ‘second existence’ of folk dance, mentions as an example Salonsko Kolo and Croatian expatriates in Chile.81 Nahachewsky outlines how the ‘first existence’ of Salonsko Kolo has its roots in Slavonian folk dances and salon Quadrilles. Then, as the ‘second existence’, there is Bogunović’s choreography of Salonsko Kolo, as described in detail by Kuhač. Finally, during political turmoil in Croatia (in 1917 and 1941), Roić teaches the Croatian expatriates in Chile that same Salonsko Kolo. In that period in Croatia, Salonsko Kolo began to be danced less and less frequently. So, Salonsko Kolo, in all the above-mentioned examples, promoted predominantly a national character, which was consciously accentuated in every performance. In the 1980s, in dance performances of the Kolo among emigrants of Croatian descent in Antofagasta entitled Davi Ćiro, Nahachewsky observes the return of Salonsko Kolo to its ‘first existence’ among the Croatian expatriates. He argues that the context of the performances of Davi Ćiro mirror the context of the ‘first existence’ of Salonsko Kolo, because dancers are no longer interested solely in the authenticity and originality of the dance, but have incorporated it into their everyday social life. According to Ivancich Dunin, Davi Ćiro had never been performed spontaneously as a part of social dance life, but the choreography was learnt and meant to be performed exclusively on stage.82 Despite the fact that at that time dancers in South America were probably not concerned about the authenticity and originality of the choreography, since it was performed exclusively on stage, it is difficult to discuss its so-called ‘first existence’. During the Homeland War,83 Salonsko Kolo again became the symbol of national identity among expatriates, and was performed with this express purpose. In this way, as Nahacheswky asserts, Salonsko Kolo again enters into a ‘second existence’.84

  • 85 An American choreographer, researcher and dancer who rendered the traditional dances of the Balkans (...)
  • 86 Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter, ‘Dvoransko kolo: From the 1940s to the Twentieth Century’, in Balkan Dance (...)

38Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter describes how Dick Crum85 learnt one version of the choreography for Dvoransko Kolo from Coronelli’s daughter in the 1950s, and used Kuhač’s notes to reconstruct the choreography and put it on stage at the University of California in 1984. It was performed by his students and the members of the International Folklore Society. Ruyter illustrates how the tradition of the Croatian Dvoransko Kolo was transferred from its homeland across to American soil, and outlines its independent development and life among the Croatian diaspora and lovers of Balkan dance.86

  • 87 We thank Daniela Stavélova for the information about Ceská Beseda.
  • 88 We thank Lászlo Felföldi for this information.

39Salonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1) can be compared to the Czechs’ national dance, Česká Beseda in terms of its historical development. Despite the fact that the Polka is considered the Czechs’ national dance, Česká Beseda was first introduced to the society and danced in 1862. The term Česká Beseda was the common label of urban gatherings of Czech nationalistic circles in the nineteenth century, parallel with the Illyran movement in Croatia. Despite being composed of figures from folk dance, it belongs to an urban ballroom dance context. From the very beginning, it was learned and performed at balls in cities. The choreography for Česká Beseda remains in practice until the present day, unlike Salonsko Kolo. The sheer size of its national character can be observed in the fact that communities of the Czech minority (people of Czech origin living in Croatia or elsewhere) across Croatia are gathered in societies called Česká Beseda. In turn, Czech minorities, in their communities across the globe, learn and p.erform Česká Beseda. In doing so, they affirm their national identity.87 In the 1850s, the Hungarians also choreographed their national dance, which is called Palotás. It is a couple dance with six figures based on folk dance. Nowadays it is performed only on stage.88

40It is worth to notice that the Croatian Salonsko Kolo was created in 1842, twenty years before a similar Czech choreography, and fifteen years before the Hungarian version of their choreographed national dance. Comparative analysis of those dances will be left to future research.

41Unlike the choreographed national dances (such as Salonsko Kolo), the Waltz and Polka, which have their roots in folk dance and which were also adapted to city ballrooms, returned successfully to their national tradition in their new form, not merely reverting to the form in which they originated. They live successfully in the context of ballroom dances at balls. In other words, they have returned to their ‘first existence’.

*

  • 89 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 152.
  • 90 Naila Ceribašić, Hrvatsko, seljačko, starinsko i domaće: Povijest i etnografija javne prakse narodn (...)
  • 91 Ibid., p. 144.

42The Waltz and Polka are dances that successfully resisted the passage of time, surviving all repertoire and structural changes in the development of ballroom dancing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They concurrently belonged to both urban and rural dance repertoire. Sremac suggests that they owe such popularity and resistance to the structure of their dance elements, which are firmly rooted in the Croatian dance tradition and practice. For example, Polka steps can be found in many Croatian dances, whereas the Waltz continued Mazurka tradition and the tradition of other simple triple-metre dances. The simplicity and choice of the appropriate accompanying music have greatly facilitated the learning and spreading of the Waltz and Polka.89 Therefore, the Waltz and Polka cannot be explained in simple terms even in Croatia. We cannot pinpoint the exact time when they began to be danced at certain locations, but we can say when they began to be danced as the Waltz and Polka. Already in the first half of the twentieth century the Waltz and Polka were put on trial in the rural tradition, at least for stage performances organised by Seljačka Sloga [Peasant Harmony], a society who organised different performances and folklore festivals. In this period, Seljačka Sloga was thus responsible for the definition of folk culture, the authority of knowledge concerning this culture, and the presentation of this culture beyond the local community. Since Sloga’s perception of folk culture was based on traditional, domestic, and rural90 practices, the performances of the native dance repertoire were dependent on this perception. Likewise, the principle of performing exclusively Croatian and rural dance was strictly obeyed; at festivals, the performance of foreign and middle-class dances like Polka, the Waltz, Csárdás and so on, was forbidden. Despite large, important, strictly regulated festivals obeying these rules, certain groups at less important festivals managed to introduce a part of foreign local practice by dancing Polka and the Hungarian Csárdás.91

  • 92 Desmond F. Strobel, ‘Waltz’, in International Encyclopedia of Dance, vol. 6, ed. by Selma Jeanne Co (...)

43Thus, popular social dances of the nineteenth century, despite various prohibitions and criticism, continue to be danced in cities and villages until the present day. In the twentieth century, while the Waltz was replaced by many new, modern dances, it is still taught in different ballroom dance schools across Europe, and is still danced on formal occasions, mostly by senior couples. It also endured in rural areas, which had accepted the Waltz only when it reached peak popularity elsewhere, and, today, it is danced in these areas as a folk dance.92

  • 93 Zorica Vitez, Hrvatski svadbeni običaji (Zagreb: Golden marketing, 2003), p. 191.

44If you ask someone in Croatia today if they know what the Waltz and Polka are, they will definitely give an affirmative answer. They might not know the exact execution of the steps, but when they hear the first strokes of music, the body moves by itself and either dances the Waltz or Polka, with only a few mistakes. Today in Croatia, Polka is much more widespread than the Waltz in folk tradition, and the Waltz is still considered an elegant dance. The Waltz today has pride of place at almost every Croatian wedding, as the opening dance of newlyweds, taking them into their new life together.93 The Waltz and Polka are danced across generations, as parts of the repertoire at parties both for the middle-aged and elderly, or at mixed parties, like weddings.

Fig. 9.4 Video: A Waltz performed at the Birthday ball at Dani grada Karlovca [Karlovac City Days], starting at time code 8: 25. ‘Dani grada Karlovca 2012 (07–3): Rođendanski bal — valcer’, 13: 24, posted online by MaPisKA047, Youtube, 13 August 2012, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=-wH873n5EU4

45First attempts to dance the Waltz also feature at graduation balls. It is interesting to note that, at graduation balls in the Czech Republic, high-school graduates sometimes dance other dances apart from the Waltz, e.g. disco dances, and also perform Ceška Beseda which they practice specifically for that occasion. In contrast, at Croatian graduation balls, young people never perform Salonsko Kolo.

46On New Year’s Day in 2005, inspired by the traditional New Year’s Eve concert in Vienna, the second New Year’s Eve concert at Croatian National Theatre (HNK) took place. It was entitled Valceri, polke i druge špelancije [Waltzes, Polkas and Other Adventures] and conducted by Siniša Leopold. As the title of the concert indicates, popular ballroom dances like the Waltz and Polka came to a prominent position, followed by interpreted Croatian folk dances, marches, some classical evergreens and similar items. The concert featured performances from Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, visiting soloists and ballet dancers from HNK, folk dancers from LADO ensemble, and modern and ballroom dancers. Due to the popularity of the concert (tickets sold out, and it was watched by a huge number of people live on TV), it continued to be held on every New Year’s Day, with the intention to become traditional as well. Once again, we are able to watch ballroom couple dances at social and cultural gatherings — specifically, Waltzes, Polkas, and traditional couple dances.

47Fig. 9.5 Video: Valceri, Polke i druge špelancije [Waltzes, Polkas and Other Adventures], 2016. New Year’s Concert by HRT Tamburitza Orchestra. Waltz at timecode 1: 15; Polka at 7: 00 and 1: 07: 18. ‘Valceri, Polke i druge špelancije 2016’, 1: 18: 08, posted online by Hrvatska radiotelevizija, Youtube, 7 July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=pnhihJ7Lab0

  • 94 Mirko Ramovš, ‘Valček kot slovenski ljudski ples’, Traditiones, 32.2 (2003), 33–49 (p. 47).

48Mirko Ramovš, who writes about the Waltz in Slovenia, asks a popular question: What is it about the Waltz that enabled it to become, and remain, one of the favourite dances of different social groups and generations?94 Before and after the arrival of the Waltz, different dances were performed, and many of them are not danced anymore, or have been completely forgotten, but the Waltz is still alive. It did not lose its initial charm, nor did its structure change. Ramovš sees its longevity as a result of its accompanying music, and specifically its 3/4 time signature, which produces joy, pleasure and positive energy among dancers and audience alike. Moreover, in order to dance the Waltz, it is not necessary to have exceptional dance skills. It is possible to learn it quickly because it doesn’t have figures, which require hours to be learnt. It is also possible to simplify the step further, without losing its characteristic wave-like movement. At first, the close embrace of dancers was the cause of much criticism and lack of acceptance, but, later, the very same embrace was likely the cause of its spreading and popularity until the present day.

49The example of almost every Croatian wedding shows that couple dances are still very popular, and suggests that we will likely see the Waltz ceaselessly turning on the dance floor, resisting influxes of newly fashionable dances and continuing through social turmoil.

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Notes

1 A similar version of this chapter was first published in 2016/2017, as Iva Niemčić and Ivana Katarinčić, ‘Croatian Couple Dances from 19th Century till the Present Day: The Waltz and Salonsko Kolo’, Porte Akademik. Journal of Music and Dance Studies, 14/15 (2016/2017), 147–60.

2 All translations from Croatian sources throughout this chapter were produced by Nina Vrdoljak.

3 Narodne novine, and its literary supplement Danica horvatsko, slavonska, dalmatinska, in particular, included a host of reports on the time and place of the occasion of a particular dance, along with reports in which one could read about the number of people present at the dance, the order and protocol of the dances on the programme, and even the atmosphere at the dance venues. Narodne novine [National newspaper] was created in Zagreb in 1835 under the title Novine horvatske [Croatian newspaper]; from 1836 to 1843, it was titled Ilirske narodne novine [Illyrian national newspaper]; while from 1843, as the Illyrian name was banned, it became Narodne novine. It is stiall published today as the Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia (Antun Vujić, ‘Narodne novine’, in Hrvatski leksikon, vol. 2 (Zagreb: Naklada Leksikon, 1997), p. 160). Danica horvatsko, slavonska, dalmatinska was a literary paper with cultural and educational aims; it began in 1835 as a weekly supplement to Novine horvatske. It was a medium of linguistic standardisation and cultural and political integration. It came out in Zagreb from 1835–1849, in 1853, and from 1862–1867 (Antun Vujić, ‘Danica’, in Hrvatski leksikon, vol. 1 (Zagreb: Naklada Leksikon, 1996), p. 234).

4 Cf. Zvonimir Milčec, Galantni Zagreb (Zagreb: Mladost, 1989), p. 16; Nada Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 5, ed. by Ivan Bach, Franjo Buntak, and Vanda Ladović (Zagreb: Muzej grada Zagreba, 1974), pp. 139–50 (p. 139); Baltazar Adam Krčelić, Annue ili historija 1748– 1767 (Zagreb: Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, 1952).

5 Baltazar Adam Krčelić, Annue ili historija, pp. 129–30.

6 Ibid.

7 Dragutin Hirc, ‘Stari Zagreb’, Zbornik III. Programa Radio-Zagreba, 17 (1987), 97–155.

8 At the time, Croatia was part of the Habsburg Empire and had a divided administration. The Banate of Croatia was under the administration of the Croatian Sabor, or Parliament; the Military Borderland, or Krajina, was under the direct authority of the Court Military Council in Vienna; while Dalmatia and Istria were administered by the Viennese Court.

9 Dubravka Franković, ‘O muzičkom životu Hrvatske tragom oglasnika ilirske štampe’, Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 6, ed. by Franjo Buntak (Zagreb: Muzej grada Zagreba, 1984), pp. 169–78 (pp. 169–74).

10 People originally from Zagreb are called Purgeri.

11 Igor Karaman and Ivan Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1994), p. 146.

12 Dragutin Hirc, ‘Stari Zagreb’, 138.

13 Mijo Krešić, Autobiografija (Zagreb: Tisak Dioničke tiskare, 1898), p. 69.

14 Unfortunately, the source does not provide the first name of this individual.

15 All the streets mentioned in this chapter are situated in the centre of Zagreb, Croatia’s capital. Zagreb’s streets and squares are specified so that dance venues can be traced.

16 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 146. According to the official 1819 census, Zagreb had just over 9,000 residents at that time (Franjo Buntak, Povijest Zagreba (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 1996), p. 641).

17 Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter.

18 The feast day that commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ’s disciples, fifty days after Christ’s Resurrection.

19 Ivan Ivančan, Narodni plesni običaji u Hrvata (Zagreb: Hrvatska matica iseljenika, Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 1996), pp. 103–04.

20 There were also exceptions, and we know that some entertainment was organised in Zagreb in connection with exceptional events. For example, in September 1842, the 600th anniversary of the declaration of the Golden Bull (the name of the charter by which Zagreb became a free royal city in 1242) was celebrated for three days. The third day of the celebrations ended with a great ball in all the auditoria of the theatre (Nada Premerl, ‘Društveni život u sjevernoj Hrvatskoj kao dio preporodnog nacionalnog programa’, in Hrvatski narodni preporod 1790–1848, ed. by Nikša Stančić (Zagreb: Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, 1985), pp. 135–45 (pp. 136–37)). During the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1852, a dance was held in the Hall and the national Slavonsko kolo was performed (Franjo Bučar, ‘O posjeti Franje Josipa I. godine 1852. u Zagrebu’, Narodna starina, 9 (1930), 323–25 (p. 324)). These events can, in some cases, be given the significance of (political) rituals (Tvrtko Zebec, Krčki tanci (Zagreb-Rijeka: Adamić; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 2004), pp. 54–61).

21 Vanda Ladović, ‘Oslikani ciljevi građanskog streljačkog društva’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 5, ed. by Ivan Bach, Franjo Buntak, and Vanda Ladović (Zagreb: Muzej grada Zagreba, 1974), pp. 127–38 (p. 127).

22 Slavko Batušić, ‘Osnova za prvo kazalište u Zagrebu’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 5, ed by. Bach, Buntak, and Ladović, pp. 107–12 (p. 108).

23 In Opatička Street (today’s City of Zagreb Museum).

24 Pavao Cindrić, ‘Trnovit put do samostalnosti (do 1860)’, in Enciklopedija Hrvatskoga narodnoga kazališta u Zagrebu, ed. by Pavao Cindrić (Zagreb: Naprijed — Hrvatsko narodno kazalište u Zagrebu, 1969), pp. 13–75 (pp. 26–27).

25 Nada Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, in Iz starog i novog Zagreba, vol. 5, ed. by Bach, Buntak, and Ladović (Zagreb: Muzej grada Zagreba, 1974), pp. 139–50 (p. 139).

26 Antun Amadé de Varkonyi (1757–1835), Royal Chamberlain and Great County Prefect of Zagreb.

27 At Demetrova Street.

28 Pavao Cindrić, ‘Trnovit put do samostalnosti (do 1860)’, p. 35.

29 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 180.

30 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, p. 139.

31 Ladović, ‘Oslikani ciljevi građanskog streljačkog društva’, pp. 127–28.

32 The Mansion had been built a few years previously in 1838 at 18 Opatička Street (now the Institute of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art) by the architect Bartol Felbinger, who was the most important native architect in the first half of the nineteenth century and leading representative of Classicist architecture in Zagreb and continental Croatia.

33 Karaman and Kampuš, Tisućljetni Zagreb, p. 182.

34 The Zagreb City Museum is now home to more than two hundred different examples of the dance programmes. The oldest example is from a lawyers’ ball and dates from 1838. The last is a dance programme with a list of dances from the journalists’ ball from 1935 (Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, p. 141).

35 On the pervasive popularity of the Waltz, as well as the Waltz crossing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, see Mark Knowles, The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2009).

36 Antonija Kassowitz-Cvijić, ‘Nekoć na svečanom balu’, Jutarnji list (20 February 1927), pp. 19–22.

37 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, p. 140.

38 ‘Prošaste poklade kod nas u Zagrebu’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 11 (14 March 1840), 43–44.

39 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Letošnje poklade u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (11 March 1843), 39–40.

40 Ibid., 40.

41 Ibid., 40.

42 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, Narodna umjetnost, 25 (1988), 143.

43 Elsie Ivancich Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo” as Cultural Identity in a Chilean Yugoslav Community (1917–1986)’, Narodna umjetnost, 2 (1988), 109–22.

44 Dubravka Franković, ‘Uloga ilirske štampe u muzičkom životu Hrvatske od 1835. do 1849., II dio: od 1840. do 1843. godine’, Arti musices, 8.1 (1977), 5–54; ‘Prošaste poklade kod nas u Zagrebu’, 43.

45 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 143.

46 Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo”’, 110.

47 ‘Prošaste poklade kod nas u Zagrebu’, 43–44.

48 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Salon u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 6 (5 February 1842), 23.

49 In ‘O folklorizmu’, Maja Bošković-Stulli observes that Vukotinović noticed the relevant characteristics of folklore at the Illyrian folk balls (Maja Bošković-Stulli, ‘O folklorizmu’, ZNŽO, 45 (1971), 165–86).

50 Vukotinović, ‘Salon u Zagrebu’, 23.

51 Vatroslav Lisinki (1819–1854) was the first Croatian professional musician, who also laid the groundwork for the national movement in Croatia, especially opera, solos, orchestral performances, and choral music.

52 Franjo Kuhač, Vatroslav Lisinski i njegovo doba: Prilog za poviest hrvatskoga preporoda (Zagreb: Matica hrvatska, 1904), p. 30; Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 144.

53 Višnja Hrbud-Popović, ‘Kolo hervatsko: Das kroatische Kolo kao društveni ples prema opisu iz 1848’, Narodna umjetnost, 27 (1990), 199.

54 Franjo Kuhač, ‘Ples i plesovna glazba’, Prosvjeta, List za zabavu znanost i umjetnost, 1 (1893), 5–7.

55 Compare Višnja Hrbud-Popović, ‘Kolo hervatsko’, 199–209.

56 Ljudevit Vukotinović, ‘Letošnje poklade u Zagrebu’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (11 March 1843), 36.

57 Stjepan Pejaković (1818–1904) was a well-known Croatian publicist and politician.

58 Emil Laszowski and Velimir Deželić, ‘Dnevnik Dragutina Rakovca’, Narodna starina, 3 (1922), 302–03.

59 Stjepan Sremac, ‘Folklorni ples u Hrvata od” izvora” do pozornice’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University in Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 2001), p. 45.

60 Varaždin is a city not far from Zagreb.

61 Narodne novine [n.a.], 71 (1847).

62 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 144–45.

63 The dissemination and popularity of the Kolo-dance was also boosted by the booklet in pocket-book format, written by an unknown author, which was sold under the dual-language title Kolo hervatsko-Das kroatische Kolo (Narodne novine [n.a.], 12 (1848)). The booklet was probably the first in a series of several descriptions of the Kolo-dance that were published. Kuhač utilised this booklet in compiling his description of the Courtiers Kolo, which he published in a paper that came out in Vienac in 1872 (Franjo Kuhač-Koch, ‘Dvoransko kolo’, Vienac, 4 (1872), pp. 58–61; 7 (1872), pp. 106–07; 8 (1872), pp. 123–24; 9 (1872), pp. 138–40; 10 (1872), pp. 154–55; 11 (1872), pp. 170–72).

64 ‘Svečano otvorenje dvorane zagrebačke u narodnom domu’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 7 (13 February 1847), 51–52.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid.

67 Bogdan Kuretić, ‘Dopis o slavjanskome balu u Beču’, Danica Ilirska, 9 (27 February 1847), 36.

68 ‘Pravnički bal’ [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 8 (19 February 1848), 32.

69 Premerl, ‘Ples kao oblik društvenog života u prošlosti Zagreba’, 143.

70 ‘Pravnički bal’, 32.

71 Ibid.

72 ‘Gradjanski bal’, [n.a.], Danica Ilirska, 11 (11 March 1848), 48.

73 Ibid.

74 ‘I didn’t see all the dances, I noted down music only for some of them, but the ones I saw, I described them as much as I could, being an amateur in that field’ (Kuhač, ‘Ples i plesovna glazba’, 35).

75 Kuhač, ‘Ples i plesovna glazba’, 108.

76 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 147.

77 Aleksandra Muraj, ‘Poklade u Zagrebu (1900–1918.)’, Narodna umjetnost, 41.2 (2004), 205–34 (p. 212).

78 The Ortolani unpublished typewrittcn manuscript is located at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia.

79 Sremac, ‘Folklorni ples u Hrvata od “izvora” do pozornice’, p. 49.

80 See Dunin, ‘ “Salonsko kolo”’, 122.

81 Andriy Nahachewsky, ‘Once Again: On the Concept of “Second Existence” Folk Dance’, in Dans Müsik Kültür, ICTM 20th Ethnochoreology Symposium Proceedings 1998, ed. by Frank Hall and Irene Loutzaki (Istanbul: International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on Ethnochoreology and Bogaziçi University Folklore Club, 2000), pp. 125–43 (pp. 137–40).

82 From personal communication with Elsie Ivancich Dunin.

83 The Homeland War or the Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995.

84 In 1999 in Zagreb, according to Coronelli’s interpretation and Kuhač’s music, “Dr. Ivan Ivančan”, Zagreb folklore company, introduces the Croatian Salonsko Kolo into their repertoire (Sremac, ‘Folklorni ples u Hrvata od” izvora” do pozornice’, p. 49).

85 An American choreographer, researcher and dancer who rendered the traditional dances of the Balkans popular in America.

86 Nancy Lee Chalfa Ruyter, ‘Dvoransko kolo: From the 1940s to the Twentieth Century’, in Balkan Dance. Essays on Characteristics, Performance and Teaching, ed. by Anthony Shay (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2008), pp. 239–49.

87 We thank Daniela Stavélova for the information about Ceská Beseda.

88 We thank Lászlo Felföldi for this information.

89 Sremac, ‘Ples u suvremenim pokladnim običajima u Hrvatskoj’, 152.

90 Naila Ceribašić, Hrvatsko, seljačko, starinsko i domaće: Povijest i etnografija javne prakse narodne glazbe u Hrvatskoj (Zagreb: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 2003), p. 75.

91 Ibid., p. 144.

92 Desmond F. Strobel, ‘Waltz’, in International Encyclopedia of Dance, vol. 6, ed. by Selma Jeanne Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 359–62.

93 Zorica Vitez, Hrvatski svadbeni običaji (Zagreb: Golden marketing, 2003), p. 191.

94 Mirko Ramovš, ‘Valček kot slovenski ljudski ples’, Traditiones, 32.2 (2003), 33–49 (p. 47).

Table des illustrations

Légende Fig. 9.1 Video: Goran Knežević reconstructed the performance of Slavonsko Kolo. Veterani KUD-a Croatia — “hrvatsko salonsko kolo”’, 7: 50, posted online by fudoooo1, Youtube, 7 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=OA9D5Zt94HQ; and ‘Goran Knežević-Hrvatsko salonsko kolo, FA Ententin, 1. FFK — Zagreb, 2003’, 7: 48, posted online by Goran Knežević, Youtube, 21 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=J8LOIffuy_0
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/14822/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 10k
Légende Fig. 9.2 Dragutin Weingärtner, Meeting of the Croatian Parliament, 1848, 1885. Session of the Croatian Parliament of 4 July 1848, at which the parliamentary deputies sought means for the defence of their homeland and the arming of the Croatians for a war of independence. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/​wiki/​File:Dragutin_Weing%C3%A4rtner,_Hrvatski_sabor_1848._god.jpg
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/14822/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 29k
Légende Fig. 9.3 Dance programs preserved at the Museum of the City of Zagreb, with permission from the Zagreb City Museum.
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/14822/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 38k
Légende Fig. 9.4 Video: A Waltz performed at the Birthday ball at Dani grada Karlovca [Karlovac City Days], starting at time code 8: 25. ‘Dani grada Karlovca 2012 (07–3): Rođendanski bal — valcer’, 13: 24, posted online by MaPisKA047, Youtube, 13 August 2012, https://www.youtube.com/​watch?v=-wH873n5EU4
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/14822/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 5,5k
URL http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/14822/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 5,6k

Auteurs

Has worked at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia, since 2005. Her articles have been published in scientific and professional journals and books. Her scholarly work has been promoted through active participation at international conferences in Croatia and abroad. Ivana is a member of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) as well as the Croatian National Committee of the ICTM. She is an Editor of the journal Narodna umjetnost: Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research.

Is Research Associate and Director (2019–2023) of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF) in Zagreb, Croatia. In 2007, she obtained her PhD from the University of Zagreb with a dissertation on Dance and Gender. Niemčić is the author of Lastovski poklad. Plesno-etnološka studija [Lastovo Carnival. Dance Ethnology Study] (2011).

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